From today’s Daily Record
“We applaud any attempts to tackle bigotry and sectarianism
in Scotland but the climb down on the Hate Crime Bill is welcome and necessary.
It is not the first time the SNP Government has found itself reversing out of
these difficulties. The challenges of balancing the rights to free speech and
civil exchanges with the need to tackle the most extreme hate speech are well
known. The proposed new crime of “stirring up hatred” against protected groups
could mean that old jokes about a Scotsman, an Irishman and an Englishman walk
into a bar could be considered more than just lame patter. More seriously,
considered criticism of individuals could be interpreted as an offence against
a whole group, while open debate on issues from trans rights to religious views
could be curtailed. Policing the law, as was the case with the ill-fated
Offensive Behaviour at Football Act, could be a nightmare too. As with that
ill-judged piece of legislation, there were already existing laws that if
enforced could deal with the problem of hate speech and bigotry. Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf has made the
right decision to pause now and rethink the bill before the legislation becomes
an unworkable mess.”
And now I believe we have such a person as a sensitivity
reader for novels that are err… well what?
I had one of those lunches yesterday, the ones were you
cheer up a friend who has just had a difficult email from the editor of the new
book. The editor was female. She liked
the book, but wanted the lead female character to be more upbeat, positive and
be a good role model for women. I’ve read the book and thought the main
character was fine. In the previous two books, that character is devastated by
the death of her dad, she suffers a miscarriage and then somebody bleeds to
death in her arms; she’s at a crossroads in her life, emotionally and professionally,
and there’s sense of deep vulnerability, and that fuels her to do what she does
in this book. I’d be rather surprised if she was full of jokes and the joy of life;
she’s still determined and pushes through her personal pain to get the job done.
The editor thought this might be a weak role model.
Then, I was reading a review of one of my books by a lady
was outraged that my book was even published at all, as I am one of the ‘most
sexist writers’ she has ever read. Me?
Ok, so I read on wondering what had rattled her cage so much. She had
ignored the other three female characters in the book - professional cops
written in a very neutral way, and she focused the entire review on one female
cop whose behaviour and appearance are indeed described in a rather sexual way,
simply because she was that kind of character. And here we start to walk in the
mire. There is, whether we like it or
not, a type of woman, who wears clothes a little too tight, not enough buttons
being done up, who flirts with make colleagues and disses her female ones. They will crap on their female colleagues in
meetings, but be as nice as nine pence to them one to one. And of course woman
do have the right to dress as they wish, as do men but in the professional
context, I think society likes a certain
code of conduct from both sexes,
or any identifying gender. The character
in the book was that type of person. Those people do exist. End of.
Would I be allowed to write that now? What should my friend do? Write all women to
a super strong stereotype?
And I’m not sure we are fighting the right war. There’s a
glossy magazine in front of me that has an article in support of the right of women to have facial moustaches and beards if
they desire while every second page in the magazine is an advert featuring size 6/8 ( Size zero in the US I think) female models,
all five feet ten with no body hair.
Meanwhile, in the day to day world, Scotland has gone into
another mini lockdown. Out at the coffee house to meet somebody as we are not
allowed in each other’s houses, a man came in with another man; a carer and a
vulnerable person. The latter had that ten yard confusion of dementia (he wasn’t
very old), his eyes trying to make sense of the masks, the distance between the
tables, a table with nothing on it. His carer tried to make it all ok, pointing
out the familiar, ordering tea and shortbread, his hand never leaving the forearm of his charge, a comforting touch
in a world that must be so alien.
Caro on the Clyde.
Our hate crime is running again for President. Add to that Covid, political correctness, and general uneasiness and all I can say is AAAARRRRGGGHHH.
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